Nasty Stuff

Joe St. Day, bassist, stood on Russell's left. Joe's silver boots looked exactly like Joey's. He wore black pants and a silver, glittery top. Blue eye shadow adorned his eyes. Joe is the tallest Millionaire, and he wore his light blond hair almost down to his chin. He, like the others, was having fun onstage. Later, he told me how the band refuses to take itself seriously: "We have a great time writing and performing our music...we want people to leave their worries outside -- check that shit at the door, rush the stage, and ROCK!"

The Millionaires know how to pose. During a few solos, Joey ignited the audience as he made kissy faces, crouched, kicked, and grimaced like Steven Tyler. Despite the band's theatrics and stage show, their music was well rehearsed and tight.

Someone to my left shouted, "Take off your pants!" When I looked over, I saw four women dancing wildly by the bar -- groupies? They looked sloppy, bumping into each other and spilling their drinks, gyrating up and down from crooked standing positions to awkward squats on the floor. They did this for the duration of the Millionaires' performance. Between songs, I looked to Church for understanding. "What the fuck is that?" I asked him. Church knows a lot of people. His answer explained everything. He smiled and said, "They're from P.B."

Turning to look at the crowd, I noticed a few sad souls "head-banging." A preppy man, with a bit of a mullet, furrowed his brow in an apparent search to find the beat and stick with it. His head would go half up, down hard, half up -- no, missed it that time, okay, start over...no, not quite, up fast! It was hard to watch without intervening, so I averted my gaze...only to find a woman jutting her head forward and back like a pigeon to the beat of a drum that existed only in her head.

I left before the Flying Putos took the stage. Derek told me some of the members used to be in the Beat Farmers, and we were bummed we couldn't stay to see them. But, as exciting as they promised to be, David in his hot leather jacket was all the excitement I needed to round out my evening.